Thailand Training

This week I am enjoying the luxury of joining the teaching time of the training here in Thailand. I am gaining new information on some of the tools that will be helpful to me personally, and in leading studies for women. Beginning Sunday, we will be at the Asia Conference. There Al hopes to firm up where the next trainings will be in Asia. I ask you pray with me that God would open a door for me to do a regular training with women in one of the places.

As an update on Al, he is doing better with his back especially since he got a “torturous” massage last night. It loosened up the muscles but now he says his skin hurts! He is supposed to get a chiropractic adjustment on Friday so please pray that goes well and will provide him some relief for the travel and busy week at the conference.

Grateful for your prayers,

Edie

Good Training Days

Our last days up north went well. The men presented really good sermons and we were very pleased. We passed out certificates and celebrated their achievements. It was a special time as this was the first group that has fully completed our training. I have been going there for almost 5 years so it will be difficult not to return on a regular basis. They are making plans to start a new training effort using their own trainers this time, just what we had hoped for and worked hard to achieve.  

Our trip to the south should have been rather routine except that the airline chose to cancel our last flight without telling us. We spent so much time at the check in counter trying to find out how to get on to our destination that we almost were late for our first flight and still had no resolution. In Mumbai, our transfer airport, we again spent about an hour on the issue and it was finally decided that we could not get all the way until the next day. The airline chose to pay half our hotel costs for our overnight in Chennai. So we arrived to our destination town a day late. (I deliberately am not giving the names of the places that we train because opposition in the government is growing and we do not want to cause anyone unnecessary trouble.)

We have now trained for 4 days here and it has been awesome. The sermons the first day were a bit shaky but since then it has been wonderful. We are really seeing the fruit of our training program with the men preaching the text very well. We have worked hard to keep improving our training over the past 4 years but what we have had has worked well. We are still learning even on this trip how to train and teach the material better. I am certain that the future result for new groups will be even better. 

One story may help you see the joy we have in these men. Peter, an older man with poor English skills, is so dedicated. He rides a bus to and from the training for hours each day. He has been hard to understand in earlier workshops. He did a great job this time and I could actually understand almost everything he said. I really praised him for both his sermon and his English. Later we found out that he had written his whole sermon out twice in English and had practiced it over and over, staying up most of the night before he preached. He continued going over it in his mind on the bus until he fell asleep. I do not know how he made his stops. Mike later told me that what I said to him had not only made his day but also his whole month. He was so happy he nearly glowed. He showed us a large beautiful brochure he had made showing the various training he had done and how some of his students are passing on the training to several new groups of pastors. He is an amazing man.  

One unpleasant issue came up today. My back for some reason has chosen to seize up, so much so that I could not go back to the training this afternoon. I think it is the bed. It is not uncomfortable, but is evidently not the best for my back. Pray with me that this will clear up as we travel on to Thailand tomorrow night. I do most of the training there on my own so I need to be able to stand most of the day.

Edie has had a great time with the Ladies and she will write a blog on that later. Thanks for praying for us.

Al

Training in the Word Changes Lives

We have now had three good days of training. Some of the sermons the men have presented have been outstanding, some still need some work, but overall we are encouraged with their progress. On the first day, we reviewed what has been learned and I asked three questions:  What is the biggest blessing you have had through this program since the last workshop; what has been the biggest challenge, and what has the impact been in your life personally. Here are some samples of their responses:

Biggest Blessing:

"Habakkuk has blessed the people in our region. We have had much opposition, but Habakkuk 2:4 and the book of Habakkuk have encouraged us that God is in control, even in the midst of suffering."

"One of our churches was renting from radical Hindus. They were trying to force the church out of the rented space. In Habakkuk, we learned that God is working, even when we don’t see it. The police came and arrested the radicals for something else that they did. God brought peace and we saw that He was working the whole time."

"Our people were saying, ‘Why are these bad things happening to me?’ Habakkuk 2:4 encouraged us to trust in God’s plan." 

"We had a poor harvest in our region. The ending of Habakkuk showed us that when things are bad, we live by faith and can trust the Lord.

Biggest challenge:  

"It’s tough to get the pastors with less education to have the discipline to study."

"Experienced pastors don’t have good study habits and slip back into old habits."

"Getting the main point and Structure and Flow of Message."

Personal Benefit:  

"I am seeing many things I never saw before, because I have learned to observe the text carefully."

"I am now preaching shorter passages, because I can go deeper. The result is that people are hungry for more and are asking many questions about the text." 

"I used to preach topically. Now I preach the text. It has changed my life. Now I preach to myself and then to others. People are passing on the messages to others."

"I am from a Pentecostal background, where people use the Word as a launching pad for what they want to say. God has taught me that it’s not my message. It’s God’s message. This has changed my life and it has changed the lives of the people in my church. They used to fear me because they wondered who was going to be the target of my preaching. Now they don’t fear anymore. They are now hearing the Word."

"My wife has learned from Edie and loves the Word of God. She studies the Bible every morning. She also reminds me. She asks, "Ravi, have you studied the Word today?” She now ministers to ladies with the Word of God. She teaches sewing to ladies in our slum ministry. When ladies share their problems with my wife she gives them answers from the Bible. She doesn't even need to have a Bible in hand."

"I used to preach whatever popped into my head. I have developed a love for the Word. My people now have a love for the Word also and are asking questions." 

"I was a hell, fire and brimstone preacher. Now my sermons are simpler. People in my church know that they can study God’s Word and are saying, “Pastor, you used to say this about that text and now you are saying something different. I am able to respond by telling them that I understand the text better now." 

It is such a blessing to see how these men are developing. The leader, Nish, said this about the pathways training: 

"The Pathways training has really helped Logos become biblically based. Our pastors have really developed a love for the Word. At first, it slowed our church planting a bit but now it has made it stronger. We planted 400 churches last year. Studying and preaching the Word has given our pastors and churches a greater fire to reach out. It is like a revival. Many other pastors and groups around us have noticed and want to join with us to learn how to study and preach as we do. We are now much stronger because of Pathways."

This why we do what we do. May God be praised.  

Al

 

Arrival in India

Sunday, January 25:  We arrived in India three nights ago. The flights all went fairly well with no big delays or missed planes. We are fighting the jet lag battle once again. The night before last we went to bed at 4 pm and although we had occasional times of being awake, we did not get up until after 3 am. Last night we made it until 8 pm and got up around 5 am although we both were awake for several hours in the night. Little by little we will adjust.

It is cool here, for India that is. It will reach 80 today for a high. We need a light jacket in the morning but the Indians are wearing full winter gear. This is by far the best time to visit.

Today we begin training, this time mostly listening to preaching through the book of Colossians and making comments for growth and improvement. Not all the participants will be able to come, some because travel is restricted in places because of elections, some because of illness.  

Yesterday we went to a Church of North India service. It was all in Hindi so we did not understand much except what our translator summarized in notes. But it was clear the speaker never interacted with the text. It was a special unity Sunday and the speaker was the national director of the India Council of Churches. We later were invited to sit and talk with him and other "big wigs" in the pastor's office. Who knows what may come of such conversations arranged by the Lord.  

Thank you for praying, 

Al